Easy Peasy Chunky Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Got this recipe from Lily, on faceb00k.
I usually use the box mix from b3tty cr0cker, so I never really bothered with making brownies from scratch before, but Lily's looked so easy and so yummeh, I just had to try it.
I modified the recipe a bit because I think 2 cups of sugar is just a little too much, and I had a hankering for dark chocolate and I had some peanut butter to finish off. I also modified the method a bit because I only have one measuring cup and I wanted to use it without washing it too often.

Easy Peasy Chunky Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 cups sugar (I just use granulated sugar)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons chunky peanut butter (or smooth, or more, if you like)
200gram of your favourite dark chocolate bar (cut into chunks)

Method
Preheat oven to 350degFarenhite. Grease, flour and/or line the bottom of 9"X9" square pan or 11" round baking pan.
In a bowl, mix well flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cocoa powder.
In another bowl, mix well oil and eggs.
Add flour mix into oil+egg mix bit by bit and stir to mix well. Add vanilla and peanut butter and stir till well incorporated (you dont see peanut butter streaks anymore).
Fold in chocolate chunks.
Pour into baking pan and bake for 20-30 minutes or until your cake tester (read: toothpick) comes out clean.
Let cool completely before cutting.

Like Lily said, this is a very good recipe to make with your kids. Anis helped me make mine, by mixing the flour and then later mixing the batter. Since my method requires two bowls, you can have 2 kids helping with each bowl if you want.
This recipe was so quick to make, by the time I was done measuring and mixing, I still had a few more minutes to wait before my oven was properly preheated.

The result was a brownie that wasn't too sweet, and had all the different yummeh tastes, textures and dwarves - chocolatey, sweetie, salty, softy, chewy, gooey and crunchy.




I had cut mine into half inch squares and put it in a paper cup because:
1. I do not have a square pan so I used a round pan instead, but brownies just dont look good in wedges.
2. I wanted to bring it to a party and felt guilty about it being so easy peasy so I felt the need to put in the extra effort.
3. I wanted to make it look less threatening to the waist for the lady guests who were watching what they eat.

Try it out with your family and friends! ;)

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Side Story:
To tell you the truth, my brownies didn't cook properly at first. After 20 minutes in the oven, I found out that my batter was still wobbly. It was as if it wasn't cooking at all! I checked the oven dial to make sure I had set it properly, and it was. I thought maybe it was because I had added peanut butter, so I decided to let it bake for another 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes it still wasn't cooked! I started to think that I had contracted the Nazrah Baking Curse (Sorry Nazrah!). It was less than 2 hours to the party and my brownie wasnt done, and I still needed to let it cool, then cut it, then put them in paper cups then take pictures... I was starting to panic. But I calmed myself down, put on my engineer hat and started to think about how this could happen.
The only reasons a cake would not cook well is if there's too much moisture in the batter, or if there's not enough heat in the oven. I had not added too much extra liquid (a mere 4 tbsp of peanut butter couldn't have done this much harm!), so it must be insufficient heat. The thermostat is saying 350degrees, so the heat must be escaping somehow. I checked the oven door and I discovered it was skewed, and was not closing properly. I had to adjust it a bit to close it properly, and after 20 minutes of baking with the door properly closed, voila, my brownie was done! (Though the edges were kinda hard and crusty, my kids just happily ate those bits).
I've got to call the maintenance folks to fix my oven. If I'm lucky, I might even get a new one! woo hoooo!